Lecture Outcome :

Sensor Network Architecture 

There are 2 types of architecture used in WSN:

Layered Network Architecture

Clustered Architecture.

These are explained as following below.

1. Layered Network Architecture:

Layered Network Architecture makes use of a few hundred sensor nodes and a single powerful base station.
Network nodes are organized into concentric Layers.

It consists of 5 layers and three cross layers.

The 5 layers are:

1. Application Layer

2. Transport Layer

3. Network Layer

4. Data Link Layer

5. Physical Layer

The cross layers consist of the following:

 Power Management Plane

 Mobility Management Plane
 Task Management Plane
 Reference : https://media.geeksforgeeks.org/wp-content/uploads/20200120133756/gfg_sensor.png

The advantage of using Layered Network Architecture is that each node participates only in short-distance,
low power transmissions to nodes of the neighbouing nodes because of which power consumption is less as
compared to other Sensor Network Architecture. It is scalable and has a higher fault tolerance.

2. Clustered Network Architecture:

In Clustered Network Architecture, Sensor Nodes autonomously clubs into groups called clusters. It is based
on the Leach Protocol which makes use of clusters. Leach Protocol stands for Low Energy Adaptive
Clustering Hierarchy.

Properties of Leach Protocol:

 It is a 2-tier hierarchy clustering architecture.

 It is a distributed algorithm for organizing the sensor nodes into groups called clusters.
 The cluster head nodes in each of the autonomously formed clusters create the Time-division multiple access
(TDMA) schedules.
 It makes use of the concept called Data Fusion which makes it energy efficient.
Here:

Reference : https://media.geeksforgeeks.org/wp-content/uploads/20200120140628/gfg_clusters1.png

Clustered Network Architecture is a very useful sensor network because of the property of Data Fusion. Inside
each cluster, each node communicate with the cluster head to gather the information. All the clusters which are
 formed share their gathered information to the base station. The cluster formation and selection of cluster head
inside each cluster is an independent and autonomous distributed process.

Elements of WSN

A typical wireless sensor network can be divided into two elements. They are:

 Sensor Node
 Network Architecture
Sensor Node

A Sensor Node in a WSN consists of four basic components. They are:

 Power Supply
 Sensor
 Processing Unit
 Communication System

The sensor collects the analog data from the physical world and an ADC converts this data to digital data. The
main processing unit, which is usually a microprocessor or a microcontroller, performs an intelligent data
processing and manipulation.

Communication system consists of radio system, usually a short-range radio, for data transmission and
reception. As all the components are low-power devices, a small battery like CR-2032, is used to power the
entire system.

Despite the name, a Sensor Node consists of not only the sensing component but also other important features
like processing, communication and storage units. With all these features, components and enhancements, a
Sensor Node is responsible for physical world data collection, network analysis, data correlation and fusion of
data from other sensor with its own data.

Network Architecture

When a large number of sensor nodes are deployed in a large area to co-operatively monitor a physical
environment, the networking of these sensor node is equally important. A sensor node in a WSN not only
communicates with other sensor nodes but also with a Base Station (BS) using wireless communication.

The base station sends commands to the sensor nodes and the sensor node perform the task by collaborating
with each other. After collecting the necessary data, the sensor nodes send the data back to the base station.

A base station also acts as a gateway to other networks through the internet. After receiving the data from the
sensor nodes, a base station performs simple data processing and sends the updated information to the user
using internet.
If each sensor node is connected to the base station, it is known as Single-hop network architecture. Although
long distance transmission is possible, the energy consumption for communication will be significantly higher
than data collection and computation.

Hence, Multi-hop network architecture is usually used. Instead of one single link between the sensor node and
the base station, the data is transmitted through one or more intermediate node.

This can be implemented in two ways. Flat network architecture and Hierarchical network architecture. In flat
architecture, the base station sends commands to all the sensor nodes but the sensor node with matching query
will respond using its peer nodes via a multi-hop path.

In hierarchical architecture, a group of sensor nodes are formed as a cluster and the sensor nodes transmit data
to corresponding cluster heads. The cluster heads can then relay the data to the base station.

Video link:

References :

[1] Kazemsohraby, Daniel Minoli, Taieb Znati,“Wireless Sensor Networks”, Technology, Protocols and
applications, 2007.

[2] https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sensor-network-architecture/

Research Article :

Ahmad Abed et al., "Wireless Sensor Network Architecture" IPCSIT, 2012, vol.35